


Drops of Jupiter

by KodaOfHeart



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Canon Autistic Character, Colored Dialogue, Coming Out, F/M, First Kiss, Humanstuck, Kinda, M/M, Nonverbal Communication, One Shot, Other, Songfic, Stimming, Synesthesia, Trans Female Character, Trans Male Character, all my lgbtq and neurodivergent headcanons in one convenient location, all the strilondes are tho, davekat is there for like a sentence, just dont ask me how, the harleyenglishcrockerberts arent related
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-15
Updated: 2020-05-17
Packaged: 2021-03-02 20:01:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 20,971
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24192505
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KodaOfHeart/pseuds/KodaOfHeart
Summary: When Dave finds a classmate being bullied in a specifically discriminatory way he's all too used to, he befriends the kid and introduces them to his found family. A journey of self-discovery ensues.
Relationships: John Egbert/Dave Strider, June Egbert/Dave Strider
Comments: 15
Kudos: 84





	1. Reminds Me That There's A Time To Change

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was originally titled "theyre all gay and trans and autistic and you cant stop me" which tells you everything you need to know about it.  
> Kind of a songfic based on Drops of Jupiter by Train  
> Full list of my headcanons for these characters at the end~  
> I'm @/KodaOfHeart on Twitter, I hope you like this fic! Comments make my day, lemme know what you think :3
> 
> Chapter-specific warnings: fight scene at beginning, implied transphobic slurs, mention of a syringe

Dave Strider walks around to the back of the school for a private place to vape. He started vaping as an ironic thing but it turns out the stuff in them will actually get you hooked. Now he has a nicotine addiction, just, you know, ironically.

But these breaks also serve as an excellent way to get away from the loud crowds of students and just be alone. While he hates noise, he loves sound, just when it’s organized like in the form of music - and when it actually looks nice instead of what happens when you scribble with a fist full of crayons. So as he walks he pulls his obviously-knockoff Airpods out of his pocket and slips them in his ears. He scrolls through his playlists and eventually picks one full of Minecraft and FNAF parody songs - another interest he started in the name of irony but soon turned sincere. TheLivingTombstone is just really talented, dog.

As he rounds the corner of the building, however, he does not find his spot empty as usual, but instead he finds three guys occupying his precious vape space. Dude one has brown hair in a buzzcut, a camo jacket zipped all the way up, and cargo shorts. Bro two has a Bieber haircut of the same color as dude one, a wifebeater, and jeans. If they switched tops or bottoms they’d make one complete summer outfit and one complete fall outfit, both of equal part douchey nature. They’re both unrecognizable to Dave and are both absolutely _wailing_ on homie three.

Homie three has a mop of curly black hair, a white graphic tee stained with grass and mud, and slacks. He’s curled up on the ground in the fetal position, his hands covering his head and his face tucked into his knees. The two brown-haired bastards are kicking him against the wall and shouting at him, their mouths curled up into cruel smiles.

Dave observes the scene and all three guys within one long-ass second before he slips his earbuds out of his ears and shove them in his pockets, not even taking the time to pause whatever dumb but fire song was playing through them. At this point he can hear the insults the two losers are shouting at the smaller kid, and one of the choice words sets him off. It’s one he’s heard way too fucking often and one that tells him everything he needs to know about the situation.

The blonde drops his backpack and rushes into the fight, guns blazing. Guns in this situation meaning his fists. All of his brother’s delusional “training” finally comes in handy as Dave catches the two bullies off guard and shoves them to the ground, hitting them strategically. He knows he doesn’t need to just throw as many punches as possible to win a fight but instead just hit in precise places. He breaks one kid’s nose while the other tries to come up behind him, but of course no one can sneak up on a Strider so he flings himself backwards and slams the guy into the brick wall with his elbow right into his ribs. They’re yelling stuff at Dave the whole time but their words are all disconnected and distant in his mind, the only sound that matters is the crying and coughing of the kid still curled up on the ground a few feet away from him.

After a few minutes of Dave holding his own and even winning against two students that are noticeably larger than him, they run off since the one guy’s nose is bleeding all over his shirt and the other is having trouble breathing. Dave watches them leave, not knowing if they’ll tell on him but not really caring because he’s dealt with shit like this before and he knows how to get the minimum punishment.

Only once he’s sure the bullies are completely gone does Dave rush over to the kid on the ground. They had loosened up from their tight ball as their attackers were busy with Dave, but now as the blonde approaches they instinctively curl up and hold their head again. The sight tugs at Dave’s heartstrings and he’s careful to keep his voice low, soft, and calm as he addresses the kid.

“Hey, are you okay?” he asks.

The person slowly raises their head and looks up at Dave with big bright blue eyes. Those eyes are a big clue to their identity for Dave, but he feels like he’s seen them before with something around them. He takes a quick look around and finds glasses with rectangular lenses laying on the ground a few feet away. He moves to pick them up, focusing on keeping his movements slow so as to not scare the kid more. He picks up the glasses and sees them bent one one side with a cracked lens. He bends the side into something resembling the straight line it once was and hands them to their owner carefully. They take the glasses and slide them onto their face as they slowly sit up.

Finally, it clicks who this kid is. John Egbert, a dorky kid who’s been in some of Dave’s classes since elementary school. He should’ve recognized them by the Ghost Busters tee that he once thought was cool until he found out that their love for the movie was actually sincere. He and them had always gotten along well enough though they’ve found his mannerisms to be weird and that always kind of provided a barrier into any sort of friendship forming.

Dave takes a harder look at their face, trying really hard but inevitably failing to etch it into his memory. He takes note of their puffy eye which he knows will soon turn bluish-black, the red scratched cheeks, and a red smear which he at first glance thought was blood but now he thinks might look more like lipstick. Oh yeah, that’s definitely lipstick that from the looks of it was half-way through being applied when this shit went down. Dave looks around again and finds a piece of clear plastic nestled in the grass. He walks over and picks it up and, yup, this is the cap of a tube of lipstick. Its matching base is nowhere around where Dave’s standing, so he looks at Egbert for an answer. The kid looks _terrified_ when their eyes meet his. Dave understands this fear.

“Did they take this?” Dave asks. Then he curses himself for the poor wording. “I mean not _this_ that’s in my hand, because obviously they can’t take what’s right here. I mean the rest of it. The lipstick, I mean, fuck. Did they mess with it or do you still have it? I just wanna make sure you have all your shit, dude.” He winces as his use of friendly terminology and tells himself he has to cut that out immediately, just in case.

“T-They threw it over the f-fence,” Egbert stammers out.

Dave turns and looks at the large wire fence that surrounds the school grounds. Tall grass and trees are all that’s beyond it, and if the assholes chucked the tiny tube there’s almost no chance that he’d find it. But he feels like he should ask anyway.

“Wanna go look for it?” he calls behind him.

“Not really,” comes the small blue voice.

“Okay,” Dave turns and grabs his backpack before returning to Egbert’s side to assess the damage, “I’ll buy you a new one.”

“W-What?” Egbert asks incredulously, their eyes wide in disbelief.

Dave starts digging around in his bag, sifting through the useless shit to see if he has anything that could actually be helpful here. He keeps talking casually as if nothing about this conversation could be seen as weird.

“Yeah, just tell me the brand or whatever and I’ll get you another one since those assholes have no respect for personal property.” As he talks he starts pulling out some first aid supplies as well as a water bottle and some makeup remover wipes. “Or persons in general. Including themselves. I mean, seriously, did you see how they were dressed? That’s a crime against humanity, truly. Who the fuck wears camo and wifebeaters when they live in the goddamn sburbs?”

“You mean suburbs?”

“Whatever.”

Dave gestures expectantly to the growing pile of miraculously useful shit he managed to pull from his bag, urging the kid to take anything from it.

“Why are you doing this?” Egbert asks softly, pulling their knees to their chest and resting their chin on them.

“Dunno,” Dave shrugs. “Would you rather go to the nurse? I guess I shoulda asked that before trying to play doctor. And shit I’m not even in uniform, how am I gonna pull out the big sexy syringe if I don’t have even have my stockings and little white cap with the red plus sign on it? Do you think that’s offensive to the Red Cross?”

Egbert laughs a little towards the end of his word vomit and their smile makes Dave know the bruises he got from interfering in the beatdown were well worth it.

“What are you even talking about?”

“Who ever fucking knows, br-” he cuts himself off and hurries to replace the word, “pal?"

“‘Pal’?"

Dave just looks up at Egbert, raising an eyebrow. He isn’t sure how to phrase any question about their gender, so he opts for the next best thing: not asking at all.

“Yeah, buddy, you’ve never been called pal before? I know a guy who calls everyone shit like ‘chum’ and ‘old sport’, so 'pal' is pretty amateur shit in the world of words to call a friend. That dude is a riot, though. You should meet him."

That causes an idea to start to form in Dave’s mind. He decides to think on that for a bit.

Egbert takes the packet of makeup wipes carefully and uses one to wipe the lipstick off of their face. They use their hand mirror that had fallen beside them to make sure they get it all off. Dave watches for a second as they struggle to rub it aggressively off their lips.

“Stretch your lips out, like this,” Dave offers, demonstrating the weird smile that stretches lips flat and makes shit easier to wipe off of them. Egbert tries it out and wipes again. They look surprised to see the lipstick vanish from the cracks left behind from trying to rub it off normally.

Egbert hands back the makeup wipes with a shy smile and a tiny “thank you”. They then refuse the offered water bottle and first aid like bandages and ibuprofen. Dave puts the supplies back in his backpack.

“You should still get cleaned up, though. I know you probably think you look tough all roughed up like this from a round of playground fisticuffs - holy shit did I just say fisticuffs? I really need stop hanging around that guy - but those cuts can get infected or at least mad scabbed up and crusty and that’s no fun for anyone. So at least put some water on them or something, come on.” And with that, Dave stands up and offers his hand down to Egbert.

After a slight hesitation, Egbert takes Dave’s hand and is helped to their feet. They wobble a little upon standing on bruised legs, but Dave reaches out like he’d catch them if they even began to fall. They steady themselves however and clear their throat awkwardly.

“Thanks, Dave,” they say with a half-smile, then bend down to pick up their stuff. Dave helps, and before long the two of them have their backpacks packed up and swung over their shoulders and are headed inside.

There’s a boy’s bathroom right in front of the doors they enter the building through which the two students stop in front of. Dave looks over and sees Egbert’s Adam’s apple bob as they swallow.

“The tech shop b-room ain’t far from here, it’s just one stall and a sink. Wanna go there? All the bigger ones just smell like this amazing concoction of shit and more shit. That one at least has air that isn’t toxic."

“Yeah,” is all Egbert says in response to that. Dave knows their signs of panic well as they match ones he’s shown before in similar situations. So he avoids that situation altogether by leading Egbert through some hallways and empty classrooms to the single-person restroom residing in the tech shop. He has a mental map of every “safe” bathroom in this town, and this is one he’s used most often, so his feet take him there without even paying attention to it.

“Want me to go in there with ya?” Dave asks without thinking. Oh who is he kidding, he always asks first and thinks later.

“No?” Egbert answers/asks. “It is a single-person stall, dumbass,” they chuckle and head in.

“I know but I just thought-” the door closes in his face. “Alright, alright. I’ll keep lookout then.”

Dave leans against the wall next to the door and scans his eyes over the empty woodshop. This far away from any students, it’s dead quiet, which starts feeling unnerving and making Dave’s ears ring. But after another moment of silence, just when Dave debates putting in his earbuds which still sit in his pockets blaring out some song about a man being behind the slaughter, he hears the water start to run in the sink in the bathroom. He hears some splashes in the water, then a minute later it turns off. Then he hears the distinct sound of paper towels being pulled from their holder and used to wipe something, then their descent into the trash can. He expects the door to open any second, but is just met with silence. He’s about to call out the kid’s name when their voice interrupts his thoughts.

“Why are you doing all this for me?” Their voice sounds hollow and distant, more so than how the door muffles it.

Dave shrugs instinctively, then his brain cell kicks in and he verbalizes his response.

“I don't know. You looked like you needed help, I’m a guy who could provide that help, it just made sense.” He wonders if he did something wrong but is to afraid to speak that thought aloud.

“Were you trying to be some kind of hero?” their voice rings out. It has a touch of anger in it.

“Nah,” Dave responds, frustrated at that thought but not showing it in his tone. “Sorry if I misread the situation, but if seemed like you were getting your ass handed to you. As if your ass was being served on a silver platter by some camo-wearing butlers on douchebag butler island. I happened to have both their asses on my own platters so I decided to do some serving myself. Seemed like the right thing to do.”

Egbert just hums in response. Dave fears for a moment that he made the wrong choice in interfering at all. But then a moment later the brunette steps out from the bathroom. The edges of their hair around their face are wet and their face is red like they might’ve been crying. They look up at Dave directly in the shades which causes Dave to look at their stained shirt instead of maintaining the eye contact.

“Dave, I am going to do something, and then we aren’t going to talk about it or any of this again, you got it?"

Dave just raises an eyebrow in curiosity.

Egbert then wraps their arms around Dave in a tight hug. Though it lasts only about two seconds, it’s enough to make Dave tense and his nerves light on fire and alarm bells start to go off in his head. The kid has his face buried in the chest of Dave’s tee but he can still hear them mumble a “thank you” into the fabric. Egbert pulls away right before Dave can go into full-fledged panic mode, but the blonde keeps his cool while he has a mini meltdown on the inside.

“So, are we cool?” Egbert asks. “Like, pretend this never happened sort of cool?”

“Yeah we are so cool just fucking ice cold like alright times fourteen kind of cool. But also you said that not talking about it would directly follow that hug so now I’m confused as to why the fuck you had to ask again when we were already in agreement, like you don’t have to ask twice that shit is locked down like a contract written by-”

Dave’s nervous ramble is cut short by the bell that signifies the end of lunch. He looks up towards the speakers as if their blaring tone personally offended him as his stomach grumbles and he makes a mental note to stop by the convenience store on his way home to make up for the missed meal.

“Well, uh, see you around Dave!” Egbert says before quickly walking away. Dave watches them start to leave for a second before the idea from earlier pokes him directly between the eyes to get his attention.

“Hey!” he calls out before he even has his thoughts in order. Egbert stops and turns to him. Their curls do a little dance as their head whips around and it’s lowkey cute but who would think that no not Dave never. “Bring your lunch and meet me at room 413 tomorrow.”

“Uh, okay?” They give a confused expression and a little goodbye salute before fully leaving for class. It takes Dave a full minute to realize he needs to get class too - he’s just been standing there thinking about Egbert and what the hell just happened and what that might mean about them and if that was a good idea to invite them to meet his friends tomorrow and oh shit that’s the late bell now he’s gotta Heely as fast as he can to get to class before he reaches the point of getting in trouble. He barely makes it in in time and hurries to his seat. He spends the rest of class and the rest of the day thinking about Egbert.

That night, Dave messages his sister to warn her that he’s bringing company tomorrow.

  


\-- turntechGodhead  [TG]  began pestering tentacleTherapist  [TT]  \--

TG: yo rose

TT: Oh no.

TT: I helped you get into Advanced Placement Literature because of some godforsaken reason, but I am not going to hold your hand through the entire course.

TT: I refuse to have you come over in your purple pajamas to take a nap in my yarn pile as I write your papers for you. You are a big boy, Dave, you can write an essay. I believe in you.

TG: ok first of all you know the reason i needed to be in ap lit and that reason is one karred kat

TG: secondly

TG: how do you know theyre purple

TG: and last but certainly not least the ACTUAL reason i messaged you, miss taken assumptions

TT: Oh? Then what would that reason be?

TT: Allow me to take another guess then. You are bringing a new guest to our meeting tomorrow.

TG: how the fuck do you always know these things

TT: You cannot run nor hide from my all-seeing eye and uncannily accurate gaydar.

TG: dont gaydars only go off when someone might be gay not when someone gay is doing something gay

TT: I’ve applied some upgrades to mine. Seriously, Dave, you’re using an old model. Get with the times.

TG: shit youre right wheres the hardware store thats decked out in rainbows and only plays abba through the shitty speakers

TT: Tell you what. I’ll take you there after school tomorrow, and maybe your “friend” can come with.

TG: i never used the word friend so those quotation marks are frauds get em outta here theyre quoting nothing

TG: but fine ill ask if they wanna come

TT: I will eagerly await their answer.

TG: yeah same

\-- turntechGodhead  [TG]  ceased pestering tentacleTherapist  [TT]  \--

  


The next day, Dave waits anxiously outside of room 413, looking down either side of the hallway for those black curls to come into sight. He tends to pay more attention to characteristics like hair, clothes, eye color, and accessories since he has a hard time telling faces apart. Features like the sound and color of people's voices helps a lot too, but obviously only when the person in question is actually talking. It’s not a big deal, he just has to remember different things about people. It only gets hard when he tries to picture someone in his head or when people change their hair drastically or something like that.

So he searches the hall for those dark curls, the rectangle glasses on top of the most vividly blue eyes he’s ever seen, or merch from Ghost Busters or Con Air or some other hilariously bad movie. He thinks he spots someone on his left side who has hair sorta like Egbert’s, but from this far away he can’t tell the shape of their glasses or the color of their-

A tap on his right shoulder makes him jump a little bit. He chastises himself for flinching as he whips around and faces Egbert in all their dorky glory. He breathes a sigh of relief seeing that they actually showed up. They quirk the corner of their mouth up a little.

“You look like a bouncer, Dave. What exclusive nightclub are you guarding? New York’s hottest club is _four hundred thirteen,_ and it’s got _everything_ : boring teachers, even more boring students, desks that-"

“Holy shit are you referencing SNL right now?"

“You’d have to watch it to know that’s what that’s from! Gotcha bro!"

“I watch a lot of things ironically, you wouldn’t believe all the shit I watch for that one reason."

“Uh-huh, _suuure._ Anyways, what are you guarding on the other side of this bridge, Mr. Troll?"

“Am I a troll or a bouncer? Make up your mind, Egbert."

They pause for a second.

“Does it matter? Just tell me why you wanted me here specifically."

“I have some friends I want you to meet,” Dave says casually. He then opens the door behind him and holds it open all gentleman-like for Egbert. They step inside the classroom and see an assortment of students littered around the room. They’re all talking but it’s surprisingly pretty quiet despite that, as if these are somehow a bunch of kids who know how to use their inside voices. A lot of heads turn towards the two of them as they step inside.

Dave senses Egbert's tenseness as attention turns towards them, so he steps into the room and in front of them to switch the attention onto himself. A lot of the faces light up and a few people excitedly call his name. He offers a little wave to a few, then turns towards Egbert. They seem to have noticed the desk next to the door where there sits a little basket full of stickers and sharpies. Inside there are four types of pronoun stickers (he/him, she/her, they/them, and blank) as well as nametag ones. They sift around through the stickers for a moment before turning back to you.

“Dave, what is this place?” they ask.

“Home, baby!” comes a voice from behind Dave. He ignores it as Egbert looks in that direction with a vaguely annoyed look.

“It’s GSA. You know, gay straight alliance? Some people actually don’t know what it stands for, so I guess I should clarify-"

“Why?"

“What?"

Egbert looks around at the people slowly losing attention in them and leans in close, speaking in a hushed tone right in Dave’s ear.

“Why did you bring me here? I’m not… you know. A homosexual."

Dave has to hold back from bursting out laughing at that phrasing. For a brief moment he doesn’t know how to answer, since he assumed that Egbert is either going through a gender thing or is just non-conforming to masculinity standards, but that suddenly feels inappropriate to bring up or even have assumed in the first place. Maybe the kid is just a cishet guy after all.

Either way, Dave still wants to try to keep them around for a while.

“Doesn’t matter,” Dave says back in a low voice. “Did you miss the ‘straight’ part of ‘gay straight alliance’? Anyone is welcome here. I just brought you cause like all of my friends and family are here so I thought I’d introduce ya.” Egbert still looks unsure. “You don’t have to stay.”

“Nah, I’ll stay,” Egbert finally says. “So, what, you’re the one straight not-trans guy in your family?”

“Good one. Anyway,” Dave moves on before Egbert can pry into what that means and he gestures to various people in the room. “My sister wants to meet you but before she gets the chance to bore you to death I got some friends I want you to meet. There’s a bunch of ‘em so don’t worry too much about getting everyone’s names, that’s what the nametags are for. Also for those of us who change our name like every day. So feel free to grab a nametag and, uh, whatever pronoun you want, and I can introduce you.”

Egbert then returns their attention to the basket on their side again. Dave moves so he can access the stickers, writes out “Dave” on one of the nametags and casually picks up a “he/him” pronoun sticker. Egbert watches carefully as he removes the backings of both and applies them onto his shirt, suspiciously right on top of where his nipples would be, though that thought would barely cross their mind. Egbert picks up a nametag first since they seem to be hesitant on the pronouns for now. Dave watches carefully as they pick up one of the provided Sharpies, uncaps it, and stops. They’re just kind of looking at the “hello my name is” sticker. Dave doesn’t want to push anything, but wants to add one more statement that’ll hopefully provide some relief to the kid.

“You can be anybody you want here, by the way."

“What?” they ask, turning to look up at Dave.

“I’m just saying. You can write any name you want."

“So even like, Nic Cage?"

“I mean a name you’d want to be yours, or try out for a while, dipshit,” Dave teases. “Like sure some of us joke around with the nametags - honestly Dirk puts ‘Rainbow Dash’ so often I’ve wondered if he’s genuinely gonna start going by that - but they serve to help people who don’t know your name, obviously. So you _can_ put something stupid like a mediocre actor but it wouldn’t help the people here know you any better and that kinda defeats the whole purpose.”

“Hey, Nic Cage is the greatest actor in existence, take that back or I’m out!” they challenge. Dave knows they’re bluffing but won’t take the chance.

“Fine, he sucks a little less now just because you’re a simp for the Cage man, whatever. Just write something so I can get some obligatory introductions out of the way and we can eat."

Egbert looks back at the nametag for a moment. Then they bend down and scribble a name on it quickly, as if making themselves get it over with. When they stand back up Dave reads the name: “John”. He feels oddly disappointed and isn’t sure why. He wants to ask about it but isn’t sure how.

Egbert then picks up a “he/him” sticker but hesitates as they look through the others. Dave wonders if they might pick out a different one.

They hold up the “they/them” sticker to Dave.

“What’s this? Isn’t ‘they’ plural?"

“It can be plural or singular, dog. Just like the pronoun ‘you’ which used to be exclusively plural until a few hundred years ago."

“Huh. I didn’t know that."

“Yeah we’re full of fun facts up in this bitch. Nothing like being in a club full of weebs with dyed hair and an extensive knowledge on a specific branch of linguistics."

They then hold up the blank pronoun sticker.

“Why are some blank? Do some people have like… no pronouns?"

“Well, yeah, some do, but that's not exactly what these are. They're a write-your-own, fill-in-the-blank type deal. For when your pronouns aren’t just outside binary but outside the trinary too."

“So you can just… make up pronouns? How does that work?"

“All language is made up,” Dave recites. He kind of hates explaining this and knows there’s plenty of people here who could do it much better than him and be more than happy to do so, but he wants to be the one to introduce Egbert to this community. He doesn’t know why he feels obligated to, but he does anyway.

“Well, yeah, I guess. But what could stop someone from identifying as, like, a chair? Or being something like an attack helicopter with the rifle shots as your pronouns?"

Dave winces slightly and hopes no one heard that.

“I get that you’re new to this so I’ll let that slide, and I’ll explain why later, just don’t say shit like that okay? It’s got mad oppressive history. Plus it’s just disrespectful. I’m just asking you to keep an open mind, dude. Like I said these peeps are my friends and fam, my bread and butter, my rock. Or, rocks, I guess. Just a pile a’ boulders up in here, creating a mountain of good vibes."

“Oh! I didn’t know that was offensive, sorry,” they apologize sincerely. They then look down at the stickers in their hands. After a brief and unexplainable pause they put all the pronoun stickers away except for the "he/him" one and then they peel the backs off of that and the nametag and press them onto their shirt.

“Cool, let’s get this over with then,” Dave says, even though he’s doing this entirely voluntarily.

He leads Egbert over to one group of teens and starts at one end with a blonde boy in a black tank top and dark triangular anime shades, identical to the ones on Dave’s face. His stickers say “he/him” and “Dirk” in plain letters. He’s slightly rocking back and forth and humming a tune as he texts on his phone.

“This is Dirk, my brother,” Dave tells Egbert.

“Hi Dirk! My name is John,” Egbert says, sticking their hand out.

Dirk stops humming and rocking when Dave says his name and he looks up to regard the two of them. He simply nods as a greeting and stays as speechless and stoic as ever.

“By gum, Dirk, don’t leave the lad hanging!” a forest-green voice slides in from the side, forced British accent as thick as ever. Dave doesn’t acknowledge him yet.

Dirk sets his phone on the desk and takes both his hands to curl Egbert’s fingers into a fists which he proceeds to bump. He then picks up his phone and goes back to texting with lightning-fast thumbs.

Egbert raises an eyebrow at Dave.

“Oh, don’t take it personally, he doesn’t talk,” Dave says quietly. He knows Dirk can still hear him but he at least makes an effort to not announce the obvious to the world. He then moves on to the boy who had piped up to demand Dirk to not leave Egbert hanging: a dark-haired boy with glasses eerily similar to Egbert’s who’s wearing a green puffy vest over a t-shirt and way too short shorts that everyone notices but no one complains about. He also has a “he/him” sticker and his nametag reads “Jake” with a green skull doodled on the side. “This is his boyfriend, Jake.”

“Hello there, pleasure to meet you!” Jake says, extending his arm. “Don’t worry, I’m the kind of gentleman who _does_ participate in good ol’ handshakes.”

Egbert snorts and shakes his hand. “Same to you. Are you from England or something?”

“Oh no, ‘fraid not. Alas, English is just my surname, not my nationality."

“Right."

Egbert looks at Dave with a look that says “ _What’s his deal?_ ” and Dave’s eyes respond “ _Don’t ask_ ”.

Jake then picks his phone back up off the table where it had been vibrating with incoming messages. 

“They’re probably texting each other, honestly. It’s sickening. The trash can is right behind you for when their dorkiness gets too much to handle,” Dave says to Egbert. He receives one middle finger and one pair of rolled eyes in return from the couple.

Behind those two sit two colorful, excited people who keep looking at Egbert and then whispering and giggling to each other. One has long and dark hair, a headband with white fluffy dog ears on top, and a pretty dress on. Her stickers read “she/her” and “Jade” with a ton of doodles of space and Squiddles and puppies crammed onto it. She’s flapping both her hands around energetically as she talks with the other.

“What’s she doing with her hands? Is she okay?” Egbert whispers to Dave before he can introduce her.

“What?” Dave whispers back. “Oh, yeah, she’s fine. It’s called stimming, same with what Dirk’s doing. Sometimes it means she’s happy sometimes it means she’s anxious. If you’re around her long enough you’ll learn to tell the difference between ‘em.”

“Oh. What about right now?"

“Definitely happy. She likes new people, so it’s probably cause of you."

“Is Dirk happy too?"

“You’re funny,” he deadpans, then raises his voice to a normal speaking level. “That’s Jade, by the way.” That perks her attention like saying the word “treat” around a dog.

“Hi!” she shouts, waving. Egbert flinches a little at her unexpected volume. Some people around Jade shush her politely, and she lowers her voice a bit too much. “Sorry! It’s just nice to see you here!”

Egbert waves back.

The equally excited person beside Jade is like a neon sign of colors and energy. Their hair is pure white and in it sits a headband with cat ears on top. Their outfit is a perfectly androgynous mixture of styles which is bright orange and green, two colors that you wouldn’t think worked together until you saw them. Dave squints at their stickers to see how they’re presenting today to introduce them properly and sees “they/them” and “Peta” and a doodle of a cat wearing shades. They themselves are wearing a pair of aviators with orange lenses. Peta actually looks somewhat similar to Dave, but only a little bit similar, like a quarter or a third.

“Eyestrain over there is my sibling too."

“Is their name Peta?” Egbert asks, pronouncing it “pee-tah”.

“No, it’s Peta,” Dave answers, pronouncing it “peh-tah”. “‘Sup, Peta?” he calls out to them, walking over for a fist bump. The bump leads to a uniquely complicated handshake which Egbert has trouble following, as does everybody who’s lucky enough to witness it.

“What’s up, Dave? Also, hi, new furiend!” they wave at Egbert.

Dave returns to Egbert’s side as they wave at them in return.

“Hover over their text to see something cool,” Dave whispers to them.

“What does that mean?” Egbert asks.

Dave shrugs. “Nothing. Just a neat party trick I have no idea how they do."

“O...kay?” Egbert then addresses Jade and Peta. “Hi there. Nice… ears? Hey, are you two furries?"

Dave snorts a bit to himself. Jade and Peta just look at each other and break out into laughter.

"Hell yeah! The most badass purritiest furries you'll ever meet, dude." Peta calls out. 

“Everyone’s got a little furry in them,” Dave says, leading Egbert to the next group of people. “Actually wait don’t twist the meaning of that. You know what I meant. Just don’t let them ask you what your favorite animal is, it’s all downhill from there.”

The next person Dave stops in front of is a kid with two-tone half-blonde-half-black hair and 3D glasses who’s playing on a Nintendo Switch. The person whose nametag reads “Sollux” has her “she/her” and “he/him” stickers on the back of his Switch, but Dave knows she has matching ones on the ass of his pants for whenever she gets hassled for not wearing them on his person.

“Hey, Sollux, this is my friend."

“Hi Sollux! I am John."

“Hi John, I don’t give a shit,” Sollux says with her signature lisp, not looking up from his Switch.

Egbert looks disappointed.

“Don’t take that personally either,” Dave tells them, “he’s an asshole to everybody.”

“Just you and your gay-ass douchey friends.”

“Don't you fall into that category?.”

“Unfortunately yes. But also fuck you."

Dave rolls his eyes behind his shades.

“Hey Sollux, how does having both girl and boy pronouns work?” Egbert asks innocently.

Sollux makes a show of pausing her game and looking up to glare at Egbert.

“I was told there were two options so I picked both. You use them interchangeably. Or don’t, I don’t care.” He returns to his game and Dave moves on.

Sitting next to Sollux is another adorable couple. The first Dave gestures to has a deep blue hoodie and the brightest pink hair imaginable. They have one “they/them” sticker on one cheek, one “he/him” sticker on the other, and a nametag reading “Roxy” in a messy handwriting slapped on their forehead which is mostly hidden under their curls. Pink heart-shaped sunglasses sit on top of his head.

“This is my sibling, Roxy,” Dave says.

“Sup?” he greets, flashing Egbert the peace sign.

“Not much. What’sup with you?”

“Not a fuckin’ thing lmao,” they chuckle, for some reason saying le-mao out loud.

Next to him sits a small person with short, spiky hair dyed a green that’s similar to Jake’s voice. They wear a blazer and don their signature bow tie. Their nametag reads “Callie” in curly letters and they wear a “they/them” pronoun sticker.

“This is Roxy’s joyfriend, Callie.”

“‘Joyfriend’?”

“Gender-neutral term for boyfriend/girlfriend. Like partner or datemate. It's so sweet you'll go insane if you think about it too much."

“Yes, I just find the term to be positively adorable!” Callie perks up in their gentle tone and sweet accent. “And hello, John, welcome to the club. It is so lovely to see new faces here.”

“And new recruits,” Roxy winks.

“What? Oh, no, I’m not-!” Egbert stammers as they hold up their hands in surrender.

“I’m just screwing with you, dude. You can be the token cishet."

“Thanks, I guess? I don’t know if that was a compliment or not."

Roxy just laughs and Dave rolls his eyes again despite no one seeing it. Dave then takes Egbert over to the final couple. The pair of girls smile warmly as the two approach them. One has a shoulder-length dark hair, a gorgeous black blouse, a jade green skirt, and black leggings. Her stickers read “she/her” and “Kanaya”. She stands elegantly beside a girl sitting on a stool and holding a clipboard who has short blonde hair, a purple headband, and a gothic black and purple outfit. She has a "she/her" sticker and her nametag reads "Rose".

“This is my sister, Rose, and her girlfriend, Kanaya. Rose is the president of the club, the final boss battle of this meet-the-gays friendship simulator game,” Dave says.

“Hello, it is nice to meet you,” Kanaya says with a small wave.

“Hey, thanks. Nice outfit,” Egbert says to her.

“Thank you,” she beams, “I made it myself.”

“Woah, that’s pretty cool!”

“Isn't it? She’s very talented,” Rose says, hopping down from the stool and placing her clipboard in her place. She glances down at Dave’s and Egbert’s stickers briefly. “Hello Dave, and welcome John,” she says with a polite smile. “Would you be alright with a handshake as a form of greeting or would you prefer something in the same vein as a fist bump or simply a wave?”

Egbert laughs in a slightly confused way.

“What? I mean, I guess fist bumps are cool. Who wouldn’t be okay with a handshake though?”

Rose’s lavender eyes flick over to Dave for a split second before she bumps her fist with Egbert’s.

“Everyone has different preferences, as with all things,” she says vaguely.

“That support sounds very ominous for some reason,” Egbert giggles.

Dave just stays quiet for the most part as the two of them continue talking. He starts to drum his fingers on his leg. He wants to put in his music or move his hands more but he’s trying to ease Egbert into all this and not be his more complete natural self too soon and scare them off. So he focuses on the familiar-colored voices floating around him in order to stay calm.

“Just so you know, I’m not, like, homosexual or anything,” Egbert clarifies.

Rose laughs. “And here I thought you were the gayest one here. I must say I’m quite disappointed in this revelation."

“Really?” Egbert asks genuinely. Dave snorts. _They’ll get used to her,_ he thinks to himself.

“Yes, John, _reeaalllly,_ ” she draws out the word so Egbert can pick up on the sarcasm.

“Oh! I almost believed you for a second there."

“That was your first mistake,” she says with a coy smile. Egbert rolls their eyes but smiles back. Dave thinks about how their smile is nice despite the dorky buck teeth. “But really this place is indeed for anybody of any orientation, including but not limited to gay _and_ straight.”

“Okay, that makes sense. So, what do you guys do here? Do you like parade around the school with rainbows and everything?”

“Yes, every day is Pride Parade Day,” she replies sarcastically. “Seriously though, every other week our meetings consists of educational lessons written by myself or others here which sometimes may include powerpoint presentations or spoken testimonials of our experiences. On the weeks in between we just provide a safe space to hang out and be your true self in a judgement-free environment. You’ve joined us today during a “chill” week, which may be ideal for you to just meet everyone and get to know some people. I saw Dave introduced you to some of our pack, so to speak. Very nice of him to steal my job. May I reclaim my title by telling you a little bit more about the group and some of its regular members?”

“Uh, sure! Make it quick, though, I’m starving. There is a packed lunch in my backpack with my name on it. And I do mean that literally since my dad is a huge dork.”

“Ah, good to know where you get your charm from. And don’t worry, I will increase the speed at which I preach the gay agenda to you to the maximum setting so you can still have time to enjoy your lunch."

Dave takes a seat in his usual chair-desk combo and pops in an earbud (neurotypical-centric manners be damned) as he watches Rose talk Egbert’s ear off.

After a long few minutes, Rose wants to rejoin her girlfriend and leave Egbert to their meal which they decide to have in the empty seat next to Dave. They pull the brown paper bag out of their backpack and go to town on its contents. Dave had scarfed down his bought lunch in record time so he could dedicate his time to this and only this. There’s only about 15 minutes left of lunch however once the introductions are over, so Egbert eats quickly and talks between bites.

“I had no idea you had such a big family, Dave! You have like four siblings in this club alone."

“More or less, yeah,” he shrugs. “My family tree is a mess of grafted branches and warped biological mutations in evolution that makes for the funkiest-looking pine-birch-oak-willow that certainly spends a good time weeping.”

Egbert just looks at Dave quizzically.

“Do you ever make sense?” they ask.

“Not really, depending who you ask. I mean sometimes my metaphors get out of control but I usually keep them tighter than a virgin asshole.” That makes Egbert almost choke on their Capri Sun. “I just mean there’s a lot of adoptions and step-sibling-ness and closeness that we just relate to being siblings that the whole tree is more like a bush with all the twigs woven together like a big found family trope.”

“Give the tree analogy a rest, jeez. That’s cool though, I don’t have any siblings. It might be nice."

“Oh it’s a living hell Satan customized just for me,” Dave says without missing a beat. But then he looks around at all the people around him that he calls family. “But I wouldn’t trade ‘em for anything else.”

“D’awww."

“Shut up."

The two of them talked a little bit more about the club and their friends and school in general, but soon enough the bell interrupted them and they filed out of the room.

They stop beside the door.

“Which way are you going?” Dave asks.

“Left, to 612,” Egbert answers.

“Oh sweet, I’m going that way too,” Dave says and begins walking in that direction next to Egbert.

They walk for a minute before Egbert seems to notice that Dave isn’t actually taking steps. They look down to see-

“Oh my _god,_ Dave! You have _Heelys??_ "

“You don’t?"

“Are those even allowed in school?"

“You see, that’s the thing. They _used_ to be banned, back when they were an actual thing a bunch of kids had. But so much time has passed that that rule has phased out of existence. Just like we all will some day. So I’m honoring the memory of the ban by spitting on its grave and gliding through these halls. Just gotta stay out of eyesight of certain teachers, but that’s no biggie."

“You’re _sooo_ cool," Egbert says sarcastically.

“You know there’s truth in that statement, come on. I’m the only kid in this school that’s on wheels. And don’t mention that Nitram guy, you know that’s not what I’m talking about."

“Yeah, you’re the only kid in our school lame enough to have Heelys, you’re right,” Egbert laughs. Then they stop outside a classroom. “This is my stop,”

The two of them stand there awkwardly as Dave tries to think of a way to say goodbye.

“Thanks for coming today, they always enjoy seeing new faces,” he says.

“No problem. It was certainly… a new experience!” they say, not with any malice behind the meaning of that phrase.

“The meetings are in that room every Wednesday. You know, if you’d ever wanna come back. I go to pretty much all of them. On other days we-"

The bell rings again.

“Okay, I really gotta go!” Egbert says, but doesn’t make any moves to leave just yet. “Do you have Pesterchum?” they ask. Dave nods. “Cool, add me, I’m ectoBiologist. Bye Dave!”

They give a little wave and duck into the classroom and Dave quickly makes his way to his own class. The teacher gets upset that he was almost late for the second day in a row, but Dave couldn’t care less. He doesn’t know why entirely, but he feels energized and _happy_ after hanging out with that kid two lunches in a row. When the teacher turns away to start class, he slips his phone out of his pocket and sends a text discreetly.

  


\-- turntechGodhead  [TG]  added ectoBiologist  [EB]  as a chum! --

\-- turntechGodhead  [TG]  started pestering ectoBiologist  [EB]  \--

TG: yo

TG: is this egderp

EB: dave?

TG: yeah?

EG: don’t text me in class, asshole

\-- ectoBiologist  [EB]  ceased being pestered by turntechGodhead  [TG]  \--

  


Dave smiles a little bit to himself as he puts his phone back in his pocket. He can’t wait to get out of class so he can text them again.

After school they spend all day texting, getting to know each other through the teasing banter. Dave finds them endearing in a goofy sort of way and it's amusing making fun of their taste in films and celebrities and hobbies. Though Egbert does their fair share of taking the piss out of Dave in equal amounts.

Dave can sense the start of something good happening here.


	2. She Listens Like Spring And She Talks Like June

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you're enjoying so far! By the way I'm writing this as a nonbinary/transmasc person so I'm doing my best to portray the transfem experience as best as I can, but many apologies if it doesn't seem realistic.
> 
> Warnings for this chapter: at the end there's a graphic description of getting a shot (like with a needle not a bullet)

They become fast friends now that Egbert has a bit more of an open mind and Dave allows himself to come out of his shell a little more. They spend each lunch together - they sometimes hang out with Dave’s siblings and friends but more often than not just chill behind the school where that fight once took place. Egbert learns that Dave sometimes needs breaks of silence or time to just listen to music and take puffs of his apple-flavored vapor. For once Dave’s found someone he’s comfortable just being around without feeling the need to fill every second with talking. But he also feels comfortable talking at length about his special interests like raps, photography, paleontology, and comics. Egbert listens and is getting better at knowing when not to make jokes about it.

Egbert comes to each weekly GSA meeting. They continue putting “John” as their name and using the he/him pronoun stickers, but they’re being more considerate as far as listening to the lessons and not joking about identities. Dave can tell that their jokes come from a place of ignorance not bigotry, so he doesn’t get mad but instead educates them or refers them to people who _can_ educate them about the right way to phrase things to avoid offending anybody. They take it well and are open to learning to be more kind. That gesture alone makes Dave like them so much more.

Soon enough the two of them start hanging out outside of school, too. They go to parks and stores together, even the movies a couple times. Egbert invites Dave to his house once, and after that they pressure Dave into returning the offer. Then Egbert got so unnerved by the smuppets all over Dave's apartment that now they exclusively hang out at Egbert’s place. Dave doesn’t mind; it’s a great opportunity to see what a more normal house looks like and what home-cooked meals are like. The kid's dad is super nice too, despite all the times Egbert's complained about him. He accepts Dave almost as a son, which is overwhelming at first, but the boy starts to accept the father figure as someone he can trust as a mentor of sorts.

One day, they two of them are hanging out in Egbert’s room working on some homework together. They’re both not very bright students but they discovered that when they work together they’re smarter. Actually, that’s a blatant lie, their brain cells somehow cancel each other out and they do even poorer than they would alone, but it’s more fun to do the bullshit work together. Soon enough Dave gets bored of the schoolwork and remembers something he brought in his backpack. He’s hesitant to break the promise he made all those weeks ago, but he wants to extend this offer anyway just in case.

“Yo,” Dave says, getting Egbert’s attention. “Remember how we became friends?"

“What, like, years ago?”

“No no, weeks ago. Behind the school.”

Egbert blushes slightly and turns their gaze back to their laptop. “Yeah, why?”

“Nothing, just testing your memory,” Dave blurts out. Then he mentally urges himself to not pussy out and just ask. “So, the lipstick thing…” he trails off after the elegantly put statement.

“We agreed not to talk about that, if memory serves,” they respond with an annoyed tone.

“I know. But I wasn’t sure when that agreement would expire so I could ask you something.”

“Nope.”

“‘Nope’? That’s not an expiration date.”

“There is no expiration date. Can’t we just work on our home work and continue the thing of not talking about that?”

“Sure. But like. Why not?”

“Because you’ll probably make it into a thing!”

“What? What do you mean?”

Egbert takes a deep breath and looks directly at Dave. “Because your whole family and social group are full of trans gender people, or at least gender non conforming people. So any interest I could have in something like that would become this whole thing.”

“Holy shit are you still making ‘transgender’ into two words? I know you do it over text and it sure as hell sounds like you’re speaking it that way too.”

Egbert just rolls their eyes and clicks around on their desktop, pretending to ignore Dave to do their work. Dave continues regardless, but his voice is noticeably smaller.

“It doesn’t have to be a big thing. Or a small thing. Or a thing of any shape or size. It can just be one bro teaching his friend makeup skills.”

“Wait, ‘teaching’?” Egbert asks, looking at Dave again.

“Yeah. I mean, I brought some stuff with me that I could find in my room or steal from Rose over the years. Not that I assumed you’d say yes, but like, shit, I don’t know. I thought I’d offer to lend you some or help teach you some shit about it since you don’t seem to have anyone else close to you like a mom or sister or cool dad or bro to show you how it’s done. I don’t know if you’ve practiced since that day or if you even have anything besides that tube of lipstick that’s still laying in the grass somewhere, probably stolen by some wild animal that now has some bomb ass lips and is getting all the mates this season. Just thought I’d, uh. Put it out there. Lay it out on the table like a Thanksgiving feast and tell my nuclear fucking family to dig in as much as they want but not feel pressured to eat anything they don’t like. Just don’t eat the-”

“Dave.”

“Huh?”

“You're rambling.”

“Oh. Sorry.”

Egbert sighs and says nothing. They bite their lip and stare intensely at the empty Google Doc on their screen. Dave can practically hear the gears turning in their head. After a few minutes of silence, Dave gives up and looks back at his homework, now lowering his expectations to simply hoping Egbert still wants to be his friend.

“Thanks,” they eventually say, their voice barely above a whisper.

“No problem,” Dave says immediately in a low tone.

There’s a pause.

Dave asks quietly, “Just for clarification is that a no thanks or a yes thanks?”

There’s another pause. It’s longer. Dave starts to squirm under the weight of the noiseless air, but he forces himself to patiently wait for an answer and not talk or play his music. He knows Egbert heard him because they aren’t moving or typing or saying anything either. This might be a big moment for them, so he has to let them decide naturally and not be pushed to either side.

“Sure,” they finally say with a forced casual tone. “Just remember it doesn’t mean I’m trans gender.”

“I swear I can _hear_ the space between those words, dipshit,” Dave responds with a relieved breath. Not that he was necessarily hoping for the yes but he just wants the kid not to hate him for asking in the first place.

Dave grabs his backpack and stands up. He walks over to where Egbert is sitting on their bed and he starts dropping supplies beside them: a few eyeshadow palettes, some contouring supplies (thank god them and Rose are the same skin tone), lipsticks of a few colors, lip gloss, eyeliner, mascara, eyebrow pencils, and plenty of brushes and blending sponges.

“Wow,” Egbert says, their eyes widening as the pile of makeup grows. “You stole all this from Rose?”

“All but the eye stuff, yeah.”

“Where’d you get those?”

“They’re mine,” he says plainly.

Egbert holds up a palette of eyeshadow that’s full of different shades of reds and blues. “You’re saying _this_ is yours? For what, ironic purposes?”

“At first, no. And then it was. And then it became a habit and eventually turned into a thing where I thought it would be the funniest thing in the world if some asshole pulled off my shades and revealed this.”

And with a dramatic fling, Dave rips the triangular shades off his face and bats his eyes at Egbert, who looks in awe at Dave’s incredibly done up eyes. There’s a perfect gradient of red into orange on his eyelids and this cool white eyeliner that’s winged expertly on either side and even goes in a neat line across the crease of his eyelids. His mascara is a bold contrast to his pale hair and brown eyebrows, and the irises of his eyes are this magnificently vibrant shade of red. He’s blinking a lot and trying not to squint in the light but it’s proving difficult.

Egbert just stares slack-jawed at this unexpected reveal. Dave’s confidence for a second falters, but soon Egbert’s lips curl into a grin and all of Dave’s worries melt away. The brunette starts laughing and soon the blonde catches the contagious giggles like an influenza.

“You seriously do amazing eye makeup like that _every morning_ on the _off chance_ someone takes your shades off?”

“And for dramatic reveals, obviously.”

“Oh obviously. That’s hilarious dude holy shit.”

“Thanks,” Dave says sincerely.

“Will you tell me now why you wear those shades everywhere or are you still claiming irony?”

“It is ironic. It is also because every normal light bulb is like as bright as the fucking sun for me,” he says as he slips the shades back over his eyes. He omits the fact that it makes it easier for him to avoid eye contact in any social situation, but Egbert doesn’t need to know that.

“Oh. Like the sensory issues you said Dirk and Jade have?”

“Yep. Damn I’m actually surprised you remember that.”

Egbert just shrugs but Dave takes a moment to appreciate the fact that Egbert actually listens to at least some of his rambles. What a champ they are.

Dave starts opening up some of the pallettes and is about to ask what Egbert wants to start on first when they suddenly climb off of the bed.

“Hold on,” they say as they head for their closet and rummage around through the piles of junk on the floor of it. “I have something for you.”

“For me?” Dave’s heart feels lighter at the thought that Egbert has a present for him.

“Yeah. Because your shades are pretty stupid.” _Aaand nevermind._

“Fuck you, Egbert. My shades are the coolest…” he trails off as he sees Egbert stand up with a blue box in their hands.

They thrust the box out at Dave. He takes it carefully and looks inside to find a piece of paper and a pair of aviators. He picks up the sunglasses and looks at them, wondering why Egbert has these in a box by themselves or just in their possession at all. Their glasses are transitional glasses, and even if they weren’t they don’t seem like the kind of person to wear aviators. That’s when he picks up the paper and reads the big letters in the fancy cursive font: “Certificate of Authenticity”. That piques his interest and his eyes quickly scan over the rest of it as he vaguely pays attention to Egbert talking in the background.

“...belonged to the one and only Ben Stiller…touched his weird sort of gaunt face…anyway you seem like you’d like them…they would match your faux cool kid persona I think.”

Dave only partially listens as he stares at the shades and certificate. He’s in disbelief that he’d be given something like this as a gift. He looks up at Egbert and tries not to sound as choked up as he’s starting to get.

“You mean I can wear these?”

“Uh, yeah. They’re yours if you want ‘em. I know your birthday and Hanukkah are far off so I can’t save it for then or anything.”

In the blink of an eye Dave tears the triangles from his face and puts on the circles instead. They feel right, they feel more natural than the anime shades ever felt even though he wore those every day ever since he outgrew the smaller pair he wore as a young child. Dave starts to feel emotional that he got such a present from his friend, and he stands up to face said friend.

“Thanks, dude,” he says, forcing himself to stay cool. “And, uh, sorry in advance for this.”

“For wh- _oof!_ ” Egbert gets cut off by Dave wrapping his arms around them and pulling them into a tight hug. He even lifts them off the ground a bit as he hugs them. It only lasts a few seconds but Egbert cherishes every moment since they know that it takes a lot for Dave to be physically affectionate with anyone at all. He finally puts them down and apologizes a few more times.

“It’s fine, don’t worry about it,” they laugh. “Now did you want to do my makeup or not? I’m close to changing my mind.”

“Yes, fuck yes, sit your ass back down and let me pretty you up.”

Egbert laughs nervously and the two of them sit back down on the bed.

“They say not to share makeup but I’ve literally never listened to anything society told me I had to do or not do and today is no exception. What do you wanna start with?” Dave asks, gesturing to the pile of cosmetics.

“Uhh,” they stall as they look over the myriad of options. “Lipstick I guess? Since that’s the only one I ever, you know, tried to do.”

“Sure. I got black, purple, nude, pink, and red. Which color?”

“How do I pick? That’s so many. I’m not used to one option let alone like 10.”

“10? It’s literally half that. But anyway picture this. A man comes home to his wife and she leans in for a welcome home kiss but oh ho what’s that on his collar that’s right it’s a fucking cliche lipstick mark. He smells of perfume and lies as he tries to explain away his infidelity. The wife demands to know who did this, who he cheated with. He’d never tell, but the mark belonged to none other than you. It’s you, you’re the home wrecker, you’re the irresistible mister-mistress-person he just couldn’t stay away from. You’ve now ruined a marriage that was probably doomed anyway, congratulations. Now, what color lipstick did you picture on the collar of his pristine white button-down?”

“Jesus _fuck,_ Dave!” Egbert laughs. “I don’t know, red I guess?”

“Quite the scandalous color, good choice,” Dave responds. He carefully takes off his new shades and sets them on the bed next to his old ones, since he can’t do makeup well with his vision comfortably darkened. He squints but knows he’ll adjust to the light soon enough and it won’t be too long until he can have the aviators back on. He then picks up the little cylinder and uncaps it, then pauses, unsure of how to continue. “Uh, okay, looks like we got some options here. I can put it on myself to show you techniques and then you can try, or I could just tell you while you put it on, or I could like put it on half way and you could do the other half to try to match, or I guess I could just do the whole thing, uh, if you want.” His voice gets small at the end as he realizes the ridiculousness of what he’s offering.

“Uh, maybe the half and half? I’m so far from knowing what I’m doing it’s not even funny.”

“I agree. The audience at the comedy club aren’t even blowing air a little hard through their nose at your makeup skills. That’s why Strider’s here. Now part your lips and for the love of all that is holy _hold still._ ”

Egbert doesn’t say anything, they just follow the instructions. They part their lips and stay as still as possible. Dave leans in and realizes he’s not only gonna be really close and personal with this cute person’s fucking _lips_ but he’s gonna have to be touching them a lot. He swallows and fidgets with his fingers for a second before holding Egbert’s face in his right hand, placing it close enough to their mouth to use their thumb to get different angles. He’s about to apply the lipstick when the dumbass interrupts the moment.

“Are you seriously going to do this with your left hand?”

“Yeah, I’m a leftie, idiot. Now shut up,” he whispers. He isn’t sure why he can’t get his voice louder than that all of a sudden.

Egbert does what they’re told, shutting up and parting their lips again. Dave takes a deep breath and leans in close, so close he can feel Egbert’s breaths on his face. Their breath smells like the Doritos they had shared earlier, but he doesn’t care. He goes to work applying the red lipstick, trying to remember how he used to practice on himself in the mirror. It’s a lot different on another person though, and his hand is shaky with nerves. His skin feels like it’s on fire where it’s touching Egbert’s soft and warm skin, but he tries to ignore all of that and focus on the task at hand. At some point he remembers that this is a lesson and Egbert can’t even see what he’s doing so he has to narrate. So he starts explaining what he’s doing to keep the edges sharp and the color vibrant, or how to blend the color if they wanted that instead, and how he’s getting the corners and getting the shapes down. He clarifies that shit like this takes practice so not getting it right on the first try means nothing but try again.

He finishes with the right half of Egbert’s lips and sits back, holding up the hand mirror he brought with him.

Egbert’s eyes go wide as they see their reflection and their breathing stutters a bit, just enough for Dave to catch. They reach their hand up to their lips but Dave smacks it away before they can touch it and potentially smear it.

“Want to try the other side yourself?”

“Uh, may-” their voice cracks, so they clear their throat and try again, “maybe you could, um, do the other side too? I don’t want to try to learn this stuff and then not like how it looks, you know? So maybe you could do all of it and if I like it I’ll try some dumb Youtube tutorials or something.”

They look like they’re about to backtrack on the whole situation but Dave is quick to intercept the offer from the grasps of their hesitation.

“Yeah, dog. Want me to do the works, full makeover biz-niz?”

“Sure, okay. Just don’t say ‘biz niz’ again.”

“No promises,” Dave says, and gets to work on the other side of their lips before they can protest.

Dave starts humming to fill the silence as he finishes painting Egbert’s lips red and he leans back to examine his work. It fits them way too well, he’s almost jealous that this kid rocks lipstick better than he ever could (like, seriously, his whole color scheme is red and he couldn’t pull it off? Unfair). He holds up the mirror again, and Egbert’s expression when they see themselves is intense yet hard for Dave to exactly identify.

“Want to make ‘em shiny?” is all he asks.

Egbert swallows and nods.

Dave then sets down the mirror and picks up the lip gloss, returning to cupping Egbert’s face as he makes their lips sparkly and shiny with a pink-toned gloss. All the while he tries to explain his methods and techniques and offer some tips but mostly ends up rambling about makeup brands and corrupt companies and the monopolies of the market.

He holds up the mirror once he’s finished applying the lip gloss and advocating for socialism. Egbert looks at their reflection with wide eyes.

“Like it?” Dave asks hesitantly.

Egbert nods and smacks his lips a few times, then runs his tongue over them. Dave watches closely, obviously just trying to make sure they don’t smudge it and for absolutely no other reason.

“It’s sticky. And it tastes weird.”

“You get used to the feeling and just don’t fucking lick your lips and you’ll be golden.”

Dave watches amusedly as Egbert starts making different facial expressions in the mirror - smiling, frowning, snarling, smoldering, even doing the fucking duck face.

“Alright once you’re done checking yourself you want me to do the rest?”

Egbert snaps out of their self-absorbed trance and looks at Dave, nodding quickly.

“Please?” he squeaks out, and something about that tugs at Dave’s heart strings.

“Of course,” he says a bit too eagerly, and puts the mirror down to replace it with some contour brushes and sticks/liquids/powders. Rose showed him enough times how she makes her face look more feminine this way, so Dave racks his brain to remember every step of that process and duplicate it on Egbert. He starts by carefully removing their glasses and setting it in the ever-growing pile of glasses on the bed.

Now that their lips aren’t being worked on, Egbert takes the opportunity to finally ask Dave what he’s been thinking ever since this activity began.

“How did you learn to do all this, anyway? Or why, I guess?”

“Had a phase where I tried to be a girl, and I thought honing some bomb ass makeup skills would automatically make that happen,” he responds casually as he drips the foundation onto Egbert’s forehead, cheeks, and chin. They squirm a little at the feeling so Dave gently holds their chin to keep them still.

“Oh,” is all they say for a long moment. “So you’re the only kid in your family that actually identifies with the gender you were born with, huh?”

Dave stops for a second and sighs.

“Jesus fucking Christ, Egbert, how do you not know I’m trans by now?”

“What? You are? No way! I mean, I thought you could be because you were in that club and knew so much about gender and transitioning and junk, but then I thought I’ve known you since elementary school and you’ve always been a guy!”

Dave rolls his eyes and returns to redesigning the structure of the kid’s face with the magic brushes. “I knew I was a dude when I was like three. My bro - suck in your cheeks like this, yeah hold that for a sec - was totally chill with it and raised me as a boy. So he renamed me - okay you can let your cheeks go… why the hell were you holding your breath? - and he just made sure the teachers in school referred to me as a guy and stuff.”

“Oh. That’s cool of him to do that.”

“Tell me about it. Couldn’t ask for a better bro.”

“So did you like, take hormones and stuff when you were really little?”

“No, I just went on puberty blockers as early as I could while we searched for a doc to prescribe me T. Which is harder than you think when you’re a pre-teen. It took a few years but I got there.”

“And I guess you wear binders and all that?”

“Are you asking about my tit-uation, Egbert?” he pauses his makeup applying to ask.

“What? Your- what? No! I just wanna hear about your transition, I don’t know! Sorry I asked.”

“Nah don’t worry I’m just bustin’ your nut about it,” he deadpans as he returns to going all out with the highlighter.

“Don’t you mean busting my balls?”

“I said what I said.”

Dave continues to doll up Egbert with various powders and transformation potions he’ll never full understand the powers of, and the two continue talking. Dave talks about his transition a little so far until he feels nervous about oversharing and being too vulnerable, so he changes the subject. Then he changes it again and again as his mind tries and fails to stay on one train of thought while also focusing on the makeup duties. He doesn’t let Egbert do most of the talking, though, since them moving their face too much throws him off. He also tries to keep remembering to explain what he’s doing, but his memory fails him yet again and very little of their conversations have to do with the makeup.

He shows off a little and decorates Egbert’s eyelids with a beautiful pink-purple-blue gradient and little fluffy white clouds plus wings that end up a little more dramatic than he meant to go. He didn’t even need to put much mascara since this kid has eyelashes for days, the kind of volume people pay good money for. Dave’s original intention was just to show Egbert what they’d look like with basic makeup on but he ended up accidentally trying to impress them. They look utterly beautiful like this. The contour rounded out their face and softened their features while their eyes, lips, and blushed cheeks add color to the look. The edge of Dave’s mouth curls up in a smile at the sight. Egbert looks bashful under his gaze.

“Are you done? Can I look now?” they ask once they realize Dave isn’t making any moves to go for the mirror or any more makeup.

“Uh, one more thing,” Dave says as he gets an idea. One last thing to tie it all together. It’s beyond the realm of makeup though so he’ll have to ask permission. “Can I braid your hair?”

Egbert looks at him, dumbfounded, so Dave nervously begins to run his mouth.

“I mean, like, just one little braid on each side. I think it would complete the look. You said you wanted a total makeover and usually those include like makeup, hair, nails, outfit, everything. I didn’t bring any nail polish but I can next time if you want, if there is a next time obviously, and I certainly didn’t think to bring any clothes with me but yeah if you just wanted me to do a little hair-do I could do my best to-”

“Yes, Dave, how many times do I have to nod for you to shut up?” they say with a quirky smile.

“Oh. Right. Okay yeah,” Dave mumbles. He then scoots some of the makeup sitting between them out of the way so he can move a few inches closer to Egbert. He then fidgets his fingers again a bit before running them through Egbert’s curls - _holy shit they are soft_ \- and sectioning off a small bit in the front and splitting that into three smaller sections. He goes to work on braiding them together as neatly as he can despite his hands shaking slightly. As intimate as putting on the makeup was, handling Egbert’s hair is a whole other level and Dave can’t really figure out why that is. Maybe it’s the silence they’ve fallen into. At one point Egbert closes their eyes and Dave can’t figure out for the life of him why they do that. But he continues on quietly anyways, not daring to make a sound and break this spell that seems to have fallen upon the two of them.

He finishes the braid and holds it with one hand as he uses the other to fish around in his backpack to find a pair of hair clips that permanently and inexplicably live at the bottom of the bag. He uses one to clip the braid to the back of Egbert’s hair, then he scoots over on the bed and works on the other side. Egbert keeps their eyes closed so Dave does the same with his mouth.

Dave finishes that side and clips it back as well, trying to keep the sides symmetrical as possible. He then takes another look at the completed (attempt at a) makeover and smiles to himself at his work and the simple and absolute _beauty_ of his friend. He then finally holds up the mirror and breaks the silence with three words uttered in a hushed tone:

“You can look.”

And they do. They open their eyes and _gasp._ Their eyes rapidly scan over all their features. They bat their eyes, pucker their lips, turn their head to view and gently touch their braids. Despite trying so hard to remain neutral, Dave cracks and smiles at their reaction. It’s everything he had hoped for and more. He doesn’t want them to be feminine he just wants them to be happy, and everything about the way they’re looking at themselves right now screams happiness.

Then they look at Dave and his heart skips a beat. Bright blue energetic eyes meet vibrant nervous red ones.

“Dave,” Egbert begins, their voice high-pitched and slightly shaky, “I really gotta hug you right now. Can I?”

Dave’s heart soars at the simple gesture of Egbert remembering to ask him first. Before he can hesitate or even have a single thought, his mouth does the thinking for him.

“Yeah,” he breathes out, and barely has time to set down the mirror before Egbert throws themselves at him and wrap him in a big bear hug. They fortunately don’t press their face into him at all but instead rest their chin on his shoulder as they squeeze him. After a second Dave carefully places his hands on their back and gives them a little squeeze in return. They’re mumbling something and he strains to hear, and finally he picks up the “thankyouthankyouthankyou” coming from their mouth.

“No problem,” Dave chuckles. The hug ends and Egbert beams at Dave. He’s never seen them smiling so bright, it’s the greatest feeling ever to know he had some play in this. Egbert continues checking themselves out in the mirror for a bit. They decide that they do want to learn the makeup but right now they need to know how to braid. So the two of them spend the next hour or so practicing braiding until Egbert has it on lock and Dave has like 15 braids in his hair of various accuracy and completion levels.

Before Dave goes home for the night he helps Egbert wipe off the makeup and unfortunately watch their expression turn disappointed as they see their bare face again.

“Don’t worry, dude, this won’t be the last time we do this if you don’t want it to be.”

And so, it isn’t. Egbert keeps the braids that Dave made in their hair for over a week after that day even though it gets them more shit from the other students. Now every time Dave comes over to Egbert’s house he brings a new plethora of makeup supplies and they start a routine of doing their makeup first thing each time Dave arrives. They’re partly lessons but mostly just a way for them to bond and have normal chats that just happen to be while Dave has his face a few inches from his friends’ in the intimate act of applying makeup on them. They try various color pallettes, experimental styles, combinations of different products. The routine is nice for the both of them and provides a sense of stability no matter how their life is going at that moment.

Egbert becomes more comfortable with the look over time, taking many selfies of each look. Eventually Dave starts bringing nail polishes and they experiment with that medium for a while. Egbert loves it almost more than they do the makeup and they start holding themselves with a different sort of confidence even when the makeup and polish are all off. But soon enough they start keeping their nails painted blue or black even when they go to school.

One day, at GSA, a handful of weeks after Egbert first joined, they pick up a “they/them” sticker and write “Egbert” on their nametag for the first time. After they apply the stickers they look at Dave, as if challenging him to address it, but now that Dave knows them a little better he knows they wouldn’t be comfortable with a big reaction for this sort of thing so Dave simply seems to ignore it besides using they/them pronouns for them out loud as he does in his head. Though inside he’s screaming at the thought that he might be helping crack this kid’s shell.

  


It’s about one month after that when Dave and Egbert go to a local mall, an activity they’ve done before, but this time with a new purpose. They head right into stores like the Gap, Forever 21, and Vans to try on clothes. They have no intention of buying any due to their empty wallets, but Dave is just looking to see what Egbert would like to wear for now. Dave helps them brave the female section of each store, tilting down his shades to give dirty looks to anyone who stared at them or whispered comments under their breath but still within earshot.

It takes a while through their window-shopping spree for Egbert to work up the nerve to jump into the deep end and try on a skirt. Together the two of them pick out a silky pleated skirt in Egbert’s signature blue and a white blouse with long sleeves and lace on the ends. Dave waits outside the dressing room anxiously stimming as they try it on.

“Dave?” a small voice floats from inside the room. Luckily the other stalls are empty so Dave can slip right in.

“Whatcha need?” he asks through the door.

“Is anyone around?”

“Not a soul.”

After a beat, Egbert opens the door of their stall and shyly stands there awaiting judgement. Dave looks them up and down and whistles which makes their face turn red.

“Dave!” they say in protest, but Dave isn’t listening, he’s admiring how damn pretty his friend is.

They have their now-signature braids on either side of their otherwise mess of curls, some nude makeup on that they convinced themselves for over an hour to wear outside of the house, the simple yet elegant white blouse which fits their figure wonderfully, and the blue skirt they picked out to finish off the look. They radiate a happy, carefree, inspiring energy as if they were the embodiment of a warm summer breeze. Dave can’t stop himself for falling head over heels for them; he’s never seen anyone so beautiful, inside and out. This isn't the first time this kid has made Dave's heart do flips but it certainly helps the crush grow larger.

He snaps out of it when they point out that he’s mumbling to himself and he shuts up right quick, hoping he didn’t just confess anything. He must’ve only been saying compliments though because Egbert’s just blushing like crazy. It’s a good look on them, the humble sort of confidence.

“Have you tried doing The Thing yet, since you put the skirt on?” Dave asks.

“What thing?” they inquire, tilting their head to the side. Dave thanks every god imaginable that he gets to witness this historic moment.

“C’mon, you don’t know the first thing everyone does in a flowy skirt or dress? You do a spin.”

“A spin?”

“Do the spinny thing!” Dave commands playfully.

Egbert hesitates, then looks down and spins around once. The skirt predictably twirls outward creating a pretty circle around them before settling neatly back down when they stop. They look up at Dave, who’s smiling, then back down at the skirt and _grin._

“Holy shit, that’s amazing,” they say quietly, as if to themselves, before starting to spin again.

Their eyes are focused on how the skirt looks as they twirl around and not on their surroundings, so Dave is quick to grab their arm and pull them to the side before they accidentally run into a wall. They trip and fall against Dave who catches them effortlessly. He ignores all the anxious feelings of having this gorgeous person pressed up against him and just tries to steady them as they look around dizzily and start to laugh.

“Alright that's enough, you dork, they’re gonna kick us out if you keep looking plastered,” Dave says as he helps steady Egbert back onto their feet. Their laughter settles into a steady fit of giggles as they spin their hips side to side and watch the fabric sway back and forth. “Hey, can I take a picture of you?” Dave asks before he can stop himself.

“What?” they ask, looking nervous all of a sudden. They’ve had a rule of not allowing any pictures of themselves dolled up unless they’re selfies taken on their phone, and Dave’s respected that, up until now for whatever reason. He just can’t help but want to capture this moment forever.

“I can take it on your phone, or mine and I just promise it won’t leave my secret camera roll, whatever you want, I just think-”

“Yeah, alright,” they breathe out. Then they add more confidently, “Go ahead. I trust you not to show anyone.”

Dave pulls out his phone quickly and immediately swears at how bad the lighting and background in here is. But nevertheless he lines up some basic angles that always looks good and snaps some photos while trying to visualize how he’ll edit them later. Egbert looks stiff and nervous in all the photos so Dave starts rambling and cracking jokes to get them to loosen up and smile in their naturally beautiful way. He gets a few perfect shots and a few bursts of them laughing or twirling the skirt that he plans to turn into gifs later.

After the mini photoshoot Egbert insists on changing back quickly and going back home since not being able to buy any of the clothes is starting to really bum them out. Dave understands and waits for them to return to their normal clothes, put the outfit back on the racks, and return to the car.

As Dave drives them both back to Egbert’s place, he notices them staring out the window, deep in thought, ignoring the music and making feeble attempts at returning any conversation Dave tries to start up. He knows them well enough at this point to tell that they’re not in a depressive episode, they’re just thinking about something real hard.

“Something on your mind, Egbert? Penny for your thoughts, nickel for your-”

“June,” they say simply, turning to look at Dave. He keeps his eyes on the road and wonders if Egbert is just referring to the month or... something else.

“June?” he asks. They nod.

“I'm not talking about the month, I mean, like, as a name. For... me. I have been thinking about it a lot. Like, way fucking more than I have any right to think about anything. I was called June once as a joke and I guess it always stuck with me. Now I think I would like to be called that.”

“Cool,” Dave says, racking his brain for something to say, _anything_ better than fucking _cool._

“Do you think it’s too, like, basic and predictable to just go with the girl version of my birth name?” June asks, sinking down into the seat a little.

“Nah. When I had my girl phase I wanted to go by Dove. You live your whole damn life with one name it’s hard to see yourself with anything else for most people. So no one can really blame ya for picking something similar, especially if it started as a nickname. Plus, it’s your name, who fucking cares where you got it from. Parents name their kids after celebrities and fictional characters and just straight up nouns all the time, there’s nothing wrong with using your birth certificate like a game of Mad Libs.”

“I guess. Is ‘Dave’ anywhere near your deadname?”

“Not even close,” is all he says.

June knows better than to ask anything more specific on that topic.

“So, pronoun change too, or just name?” Dave asks casually.

“Uh..” June stalls. It’s obvious that this isn’t the first time they’ve thought about this, but they still seem conflicted on the answer. “I guess trying out she/her wouldn’t hurt?” they finally respond with uncertainty.

“Wouldn’t hurt at all, June,” Dave says and he notices her sigh in relief at the name. “It would hurt less than literally everything doctors do right after saying ‘this won’t hurt a bit’. Like who are you kidding, doc, you’re about to shove a stick of metal through my skin and muscle into my veins to pump me full of chemicals and you say it won’t hurt? Maybe med school has like a boot camp so rigorous and painful that shit like that doesn’t hurt in comparison. Like they can’t even feel pain unless it’s a bullet to the nuts.” And on and on Dave goes, with June finally feeling relaxed enough to laugh along and provide some back-and-forth action to the conversations, returning to their habitual banter. She knows she's completely accepted by Dave. Dave knows she knows this because he does, he accepts her and loves her all the same.


	3. But Tell Me, Did The Wind Sweep You Off Your Feet?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woo, last chapter y'all! This was so much fun to write. Bonus points if you get as choked up reading this as I did writing it.
> 
> Chapter warnings: making out, mild sexual implications but nothing explicit, mention of self-harm scars

It’s been almost a month since June came out fully to Dave and only Dave. It is now April 12th, the eve of June’s 18th birthday, and her and Dave are sitting in Dave’s car having the types of intimate talks about everything and nothing that only happen in parked cars. They’re parked up on a hill that overlooks the town as they watch the sun get sucked into the horizon like a magnificent act of cosmic vore.

The two talk and laugh and play games and music and tell jokes and have a genuinely nice time just enjoying each other’s company as the sky darkens and the stars appear. June had insisted they spend the whole day together for some reason, and luckily it’s a Saturday so they were able to. They’re now having the kind of deliriously funny conversations that usually come out of being smoked out but in this case is just a result of the atmosphere of the situation. Dave is finding it harder to ignore his crush on June but shoves it down every time she shows those cute dimples when she smiles or matches his wit with her own clever remarks.

They truly talk about everything, especially since Dave has a talent of switching conversation topics at breakneck speed. They mix together dumb pointless conversations about things like if cereal could be considered a beverage, what else stars could be besides stars, and what they’d do if they spotted a cryptid outside of the car right now, with deeper conversations like their shared experience of growing up without a mom, things they fear about life after school, and what they want out of transitioning. Dave shows June some of his various strifing scars and June talks briefly about the lines on her arms. Dave talks about what sort of top surgery scars he wants one day and June shares her dream of having a chest that would fit nicely into some of the feminine shirts she’s tried on. Eventually the subject of coming out comes up. Dave can tell June isn’t fond of this topic, so he hurries to switch it and accidentally mentions that he not only got something for June’s birthday but that it’s sitting in his trunk waiting for it to be her birthday so she can receive it.

“No way,” she says, eyes wide. “You got me something?? I have to see it! Show me!"

“No can do. You see the thing about birthday presents is that they’re typically given on someone’s birthday."

June smiles wickedly and pulls out her phone, clicking the screen on and shoving it in Dave’s face. Sure enough, right on top of her lame Matthew McConaughey wallpaper is the time and date: “ _12:34am April 13, 2020_ ”.

“Damn, got me there,” Dave chuckles.

“So you _have_ to give it to me, by the law of birthdays!” June exclaims excitedly, her adorable black curls bouncing along with her.

“I really think you need to take a harder look at the rulebook of birthdays because this seems like foul play to me."

They go back and forth about the arbitrary rules of birthday-gift-giving not unlike the scene in 2010’s underrated film _Megamind_ where the hero and villain fight over a metaphor about warranties, until eventually Dave knows that June won’t let him stall any longer.

“You sure you want it now?” he asks after a pause.

“Yes!” she answers eagerly.

Dave can practically see stars in her eyes and that sight alone breaks him.

“Fine, you adorable piece of shit, you’ve convinced me to give you your gifts early,” he mumbles as he opens the door and climbs out into the chilly night air.

“It’s not early, dip shit, it is literally my birthday right now! Also, gifts, like plural?” she calls after Dave as he walks around to the back of the car.

He opens the trunk where the present for June waits and he thanks his past self for wrapping it prematurely. It’s in a big gift bag that’s covered in Disney princesses and stuffed with white and gold tissue paper. He wishes he could say the princess theme was entirely ironic and not a decision that was possibly swayed by how he sees June, but he hopes she just sees the irony in it. He plucks it from its place and slams the trunk closed, a little too hard because he’s suddenly nervous and isn’t paying attention to his strength.

Dave takes his time walking back to the back seat where June waits in suspense. He sets the gift on the floor between them as he slides into the seat and shuts the door, but by the time he’s settled in June has already grabbed the present and is ripping the tissue paper out.

Dave watches nervously and expectantly as June pulls out her first present: a dirty stuffed rabbit. He sees her look it up and down curiously, her eyes occasionally flicking over to Dave as he waits for her reaction. She’s smiling a little as she feels the bunny’s fur and turns it around to examine it.

“You know what this reminds me of, Dave? I don’t know if it was intentional on your part, but in Con Air-"

Dave cuts her off by reaching into the bag wordlessly and pulling out a piece of paper to hand to her. June stops talking and takes the paper from him, her fingers grazing his in the motion which leaves his skin feeling electrified. Her eyes scan the paper quickly. Then she blinks a few times and reads it again, slower.

“Happy birthday, June."

He watches with a growing smile he’s trying desperately to hide as June’s eyes widen and her mouth falls open as she reads the Certificate of Authenticity. She starts mumbling in amazement (“ _ohmygodohmygodyoudidn’tyoudidnotgetmetheactualbunnyfromconairholyshitohmygod_ ”) and looking from the certificate to the rabbit and back again. She then hugs the rabbit tightly.

“Thank you, Dave! This is the best birthday ever ‘cause of you."

“That’s mighty sweet of you to say,” he drawls, his accent peeking through accidentally, “but there’s more in there than just the stuffie.”

That makes June release the rabbit immediately and go back to the bag quickly. She pulls out the endless amount of tissue paper with gusto until she finds a big but flat box up against the side of the bag.

June lays the box out on her lap and just stares at it for a minute. Dave can tell she already knows what it is - it’s obviously a clothing box and is even labeled with the store that once upon a time she spun around in a skirt in.

She takes a long look at Dave, the box remaining unopened.

“Is this…?”

“Why are you asking me when you could literally open it right now and find out for yourself?” he teases.

June then takes a deep breath and in one fluid motion flips the lid of the box up and off where it’s discarded to the floor immediately. She’s met with one thin layer of more tissue paper, which she peels away carefully as if it was made of gold. Under that she finds the very skirt she tried on that day, and she lifts it to find the final surprise which is the white blouse she had tried on with it.

"I was originally just gonna get prints of those pictures I took and edited, but I guess I thought you'd like this idea better." Dave mumbles.

She holds the two pieces of clothing in her hands and Dave can see tears start to well up in her eyes. Dave had had a whole sappy speech prepared, and even tried to put it in the form of a letter, but couldn’t find the words then nor now to explain how he feels about June.

“How did you afford all of this?” she asks, her voice sounding choked up.

“You know I’ve been picking up a hell of a lot of shifts at work. Picking them up for nice dates, takin' 'em to drive-in theaters, meeting the parents of those shifts and giving the fathers a stern handshake with the implication of responsibility. Anyway yeah after seeing how happy that outfit made you I couldn’t not do everything I could to buy it. I also didn’t pay just with money but my dignity since they were looking at me all kinds of funny when I went in alone to buy it-"

“Dave, I’m about the hug the shit out of you,” June warns moments before pouncing on the boy and doing just that. The warning allowed him to prepare mentally and brace himself for the brunt of her excited squeezing, and he returns the hug happily. He’s getting better at physical affection since they’ve gotten so close.

Dave hears June sniffle right by his ear as she buries her face into his shoulder.

“You okay?” he asks softly and tries to pull away but she holds onto him tightly and doesn’t budge. He feels her nod.

“Dave?” she lifts her head to whisper into his ear. The sensation sends shivers up his back.

“Sup?” he breathes out, not intending for it to sound so meak and quiet.

“Could I kiss your cheek?"

Dave’s heart stutters and his mind short-circuits as he hurries to try to decipher what that means in the grand scheme of things.

“If you want to,” spills out of his mouth before he can decide if it’s a romantic offer or just a thank-you gesture and if his answer would've even changed depending on the meaning of the proposed kiss.

Either way, the next moment he feels June’s soft lips plant themselves onto his left cheek. He’s still holding her, and for the brief second the innocent kiss lasts it feels more intimate than anything they’ve done before.

She pulls away but keeps her hands on Dave’s shoulders and her face only a few inches away. In the low light created by the moon she looks positively _angelic,_ Dave thinks. His gaze moves down to her lips, the ones that just met his cheek. He’s been kissed tons of times in tons of ways by a few people, so he isn’t sure why being this close to his crush who just gave him the most innocent smooch imaginable is giving him butterflies. Everything about June just takes Dave’s breath away every time he’s with her.

His racing thoughts quiet the moment June leans in again and presses her lips to his.

He doesn’t think, he just feels. He feels her hands on his shoulders pulling him in closer, feels her mouth moving against his, he feels her warm breath mingling with his, he feels her glasses press slightly into the bridge of his nose where his shades would be had he not set them down hours ago once the sun had set. His other senses heighten too. He tastes her Gushers-flavored lipstick, he smells the hint of perfume she always wears around him, he hears her quiet pants as his hands dip to her waist and holds her there as they continue kissing.

It’s everything he’s daydreamed of and more. He never wants the moment to end.

So it doesn’t.

Not for a while, anyway.

They spend close to 20 minutes just kissing and embracing each other. The kisses escalate sightly when Dave boldly licks June’s lips and slips his tongue between them, to which she responds to with gentle gasps and moans. Somewhere in the back of his mind he remembers June telling him once that she’d never kissed anybody, and he wants to not let her first kiss go too far but neither of them are in a hurry to break away from the other.

But after a time that somehow seems to simultaneously last barely a second and also go on for eternity, the two end the kiss and rest their foreheads together, panting slightly with their eyes closed. At least, Dave has his eyes closed. When he opens them he sees bright blue ones staring into his with a blissed out expression. He smiles at June and she returns it.

 _Now would be the perfect time to tell her I love her,_ Dave thinks. _But I’m not a complete dumbass and I’m not about to scare her off._

“You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to do that,” he admits instead.

“Really?” June giggles.

Dave pecks her lips again briefly. She chases his lips but he restrains himself from getting lost with her in the middle of makeout city with a broken down car named Self Control again. “Really."

“Could I…” she trails off, unsure how to word the question. Dave’s mind flips through entire binders full of things she could be about to ask.

“Whatever it is, sure,” he says, then wants to facepalm at his eagerness to follow whatever she wants to do.

June looks at him curiously and rolls her eyes with a chuckle.

“Perv. I was gonna ask if I could put these on,” she holds up her new outfit.

“Oh, right now? I mean, sure. But if mothman comes out of these woods and sees you getting changed I’m not responsible for any nasty thoughts the bastard has."

“Consider me warned,” June says, and immediately grips the bottom of her t-shirt and begins lifting it. Dave panicks and closes his eyes tight and throws his hands over them for good measure. He was going to get out of the car to let her change but she didn’t give him the chance to even make a move to leave.

“Want me to, uh, step out?” he stammers out, reaching for the door handle blindly.

“Can you see me?” June asks in return.

“No-"

“Then just don’t look, easy."

Dave stops moving, swallows, and for once in his life shuts up. He doesn’t know what to say no matter how badly he wants to cover up the sound of fabric rustling that’s making him think about what this scene must look like to an outsider. He doesn’t want to be picturing her bare skin, the fluid movements she makes as she- _shut the fuck up you stupid brain!_

Eventually the rustling and grunts of frustration subside and June gently takes Dave’s hands and removes them from his face. He opens his eyes to see his friend - _more than that? Who fucking knows at this point_ \- thankfully _dressed_ and beautiful as ever.

Her hands are still holding his, so he smiles and squeezes her hands in response to her reveal.

“How the fuck did you get so beautiful June did you steal the prettiness from the very sunshine itself god damn maybe that solves the mystery of sunsets you just take all that magnificence and grace and just wear it on your face and how you hold yourself and even lace it in your voice like flecks of gold on blueberry-colored ribbons-"

“Oh my god Dave stop!” she shouts, her face blushing to hell and back and her whole face lit up in a big smile. “None of that is true. And sunsets aren’t a mystery, dumbass, they’re perfectly explainable.”

Dave just sighs dreamily and runs his hand through June’s hair.

“How dare you call me a liar?” he asks with a lazy smile. June just rolls her eyes and hits him lightly in the chest. 

“Shut up,” she teases.

Then she moves to position herself closer to Dave. He leans back and lifts his arm, allowing room for June to settle down on top of him with her back against his chest. He sets his arms back down over her and she takes his hands in hers, rubbing them with her thumbs gently. Dave nuzzles his face into her poofy curls that always smell like watermelon shampoo. For a while they just stay like that, holding each other. Dave’s sure June’s fallen asleep since her breathing is steady and she’s been staying quiet and unmoving, and his own eyelids are starting to feel heavy when he’s jolted awake by her sweet voice.

“I don’t think I want to go home tomorrow."

“Tomorrow?” Dave asks, his voice low.

“In the morning, I mean, smartass."

“I thought I was a dumbass."

“You’re both, somehow. Miracles, am I right?"

“Y’always are. Why don’t you wanna go home though? You got a party with presents and cake and shit waiting for you," Dave says with a hint of envy.

“That’s the problem, actually,” June answers. Dave waits for her to continue, and she does. “My dad is great, really. He’s supportive and always encourages me and awards me whenever I get better at anything or lift heavy things or whatever. I just… I just don’t know if I’ll be able to go a whole day being told ‘happy birthday, son’, you know? I could handle it all other years but… now I’m so different. I wouldn’t be able to stand returning to living that lie so hard on my birthday of all days.”

“I get you. Going into environments where you know you’re gonna get deadnamed and misgendered a shit ton is the fuckin’ worst,” Dave says. He isn’t sure what advice to offer. “Do you think you’d ever come out to him, especially since you just said he’s supportive and always proud of you for stuff?”

“I don’t know,” June says, fidgeting with Dave’s fingers. “I’ve thought about it, obviously. The idea just seems so far-fetched.”

“You know the whole spiel I’d give you about how it’s all up to you and you can take all the time you need and you have friends who'll be behind you the whole way. But it’s true. And this birthday might suck ass for that reason but it’s still a time to be with your dad and get gifts and sweets and stuff. I know that stuff matters less but sometimes situations just suck and you gotta power through to the other side. Wow okay I suck at giving advice. Maybe just look to the future, where you’ll have birthdays and other holidays and family events where you get to be out and seen as the real you. Maybe next year maybe later it’s up to you. In the meantime you can practice on your friends who you know will support you just to try to get the wording down. And you know you can always be yourself around me so you don’t have to be completely closeted."

“You’re right, I guess. Just sucks right now,” June says sadly.

“No, it’ll suck when you deal with it in the morning. Right now is a different story. Right now it’s just us, June and Dave. Nothing exists outside of this moment in time.” Dave kisses the top of June’s head to emphasize his point.

“Just us,” June repeats.

Then the two fall back into silence and slowly fall asleep.

  


“Dave."

“...Mm."

“Daaaave. Wake up."

“Five more minutes."

“Dave!"

Dave’s eyes fly open as some chick shouts in his face- oh wait no it’s just June. He blinks a few times and tries to orient himself with his surroundings, but it’s too bright to make sense of anything.

“Where’s my-?” Before he can even finish the question a pair of shades slip onto his face.

He blinks the light and sleep out of his eyes as they adjust to the comfortable darkness and he can see he’s in the back of a car with a beautiful-as-always June sitting on her knees in front of him. He feels the aches in his back and knees start up that come with sleeping in a dumb position in the back of a car. The memories of the night before flood back and it all makes sense now, except one thing.

“Why did you wake me up?” he asks, his voice groggy. “Is something wrong?”

June tosses a little container of Tic Tacs his way which land on his chest. “Your breath is wrong, first of all. Also, wait, you didn’t sleep in your binder, did you?"

Dave dumps a handful of the pill-shaped mints into his mouth and starts sucking on them. “Mfucnk youmf.” He moves them into his cheeks so he can speak clearer. “And no, it’s a sports bra, I’m not dumb.”

“Yeah keep believing that. Secondly, I need your help."

“With what?” he says as he impatiently chews on the mints.

“A phone call."

“You wake me up at, what, some ungodly hour-"

“It’s 8am."

“-yeah, an ungodly hour, to help you make a phone call? Also do you have any idea how much I suck at phone calls?"

“I know, but... It’s to my dad. I-I want to come out to him,” June admits, wringing her hands.

 _That_ wakes Dave up.

“What? Like, right now?"

“Yes right now. But I’m really nervous and don’t know what to say."

“Oh. Well, like I said last night you could try practicing by-"

“I already called Rose and Jade and came out to them for practice, like you said."

“Damn I guess when you snooze you do, as a matter of fact, lose. How did that go?"

“Fine,” June says, running her hand through her hair nervously. “Jade said she’s proud of me and Rose said ‘welcome to the club’ and I had to fight to get off the phone with her. She really likes to carry out her ‘goodbye’s.”

“Well that’s… dope that you came out to them. Proud of you, yo. If you think you’re ready to tell your dad just do it the same way."

“But that’s the thing, I can’t do it the same way! Rose and Jade obviously know what being trans is, so they didn’t have any questions besides asking what my new name and pronouns are. My dad doesn’t know any of this stuff."

“How do you know he doesn’t?"

“Because he is cis?"

“Good point."

“I just don’t know what to do, Dave! And I don’t know if I am ready but I couldn’t stay asleep I kept waking up and thinking about this over and over and I think I’d rather either go home as myself or just spend the day with you instead if he rejects me. I am not going to be able to be the birthday boy ever again."

“Okay, chill, it’s okay. If you wanna do this right now that’s absolutely fine. I’m right here. Ain’t going nowhere until you sort things out and figure out where and how you wanna spend your birthday."

Dave puts his hand on June’s back and rubs calming little circles against her spine. He walks her through deep breathing and then explains to her some tips for introducing the very idea of transgenderism to someone potentially brand new to the topic. He provides some answers to questions her dad might ask and tells her some good ways to react if things go south.

“Okay,” she says once Dave finishes with his advice, “that all helps a lot, thank you.”

“No problem.”

June still looks hesitant as she pulls out her phone.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Dave asks. “It’s not that I think you shouldn’t or anything I just don’t want you to force yourself to-”

“Dave,” June interrupts. “I want to do this. I want to turn 18 as me, with or without a little party involving my dad.” And before she can stop herself, she swallows and taps the dial button on her dad’s contact. She puts the phone up to her ear with one shaky hand and takes Dave’s hand with the other. He squeezes her hand to say “I’m right here” and doesn’t let go.

He only hears half the conversation.

“Hey Dad, it’s me. Yeah good morning. Oh, thanks. Haha yeah. Uh, I will, I will, I just gotta, um, tell you something first. If you’re not busy, that is. Oh, if you want to call me back when the cake is done you can- oh, okay. Well, um.” June looks at Dave for comfort and he smiles softly at her and nods to tell her it’s okay. “I guess I’ll ask first, do you know what trans gender means? Oh, really? Okay well, um… y-yeah. I am. A girl, I mean. Yeah. I’ve thought about it for a while, a-actually. I guess that’s a long story. I am serious about this, though.”

There’s a long pause. Dave watches June expectantly as he hears the muffled sound of a voice talking on the other end of the line. Dave watches in horror as June starts to tear up. He fears the worst as the first tear escapes June’s eye and streaks down her cheek.

“U-Uh yeah,” she finally says into the phone. She clears her throat so it doesn’t sound so choked up. “I-It’s June. Yeah, J-U-N-E, like the month.”

Dave sighs in relief. That has to be a good sign. He stays quiet as she continues her call.

“Yeah, it’s… thanks. Thank you. Oh my god, no, you don’t have to- Dad, that really isn’t necessary. I still like the color blue.”

Dave smiles wider as more tears, tears of _joy,_ fall down June’s cheeks which Dave is quick to swipe away with his thumb.

“Yeah, I’ll be home soon. Then we can- yeah. Yeah. I’ll tell you all about that later, if you want. Yeah, I’m still with Dave. Yes. He’s about to take me home. I just might uh… look different. No, no, I know. Just don’t freak out when you see me in girl’s clothes, I guess. No, I know you wouldn’t, I just- okay. Yeah. I will. T-Thank you, Dad. See you soon, okay, yeah, okay bye. Love you too. Bye."

June lowers the phone and taps the “end call” button quickly. She closes her eyes and takes a long shuddery breath. Dave leans forward and wraps his arms around her, enveloping her entirely in his loving grasp. She’s shaking still, so he lifts a hand and strokes her soft hair and mumbles in a low, calming voice.

“Hey hey, shhhh, it’s okay June, June you did it, that was so brave June I’m so proud of you, it’s over, you did it, everything’s okay,” he says into her hair.

After a moment she returns the hug and he can feel her starting to cry against his chest. Despite the tears and sobs bubbling out, when she finally speaks her voice has delight in its tone.

“It went r-really well. He accepted me, I mean. He said it’s okay and that he’ll try to call me a girl and call me June and he even offered to get me different balloons and new wrapping paper for my gifts since they’re blue and- and he said he always wanted a daughter-” Her voice breaks on the last word and she cries more under the emotional weight of it all.

Dave continues to hold her close and shush gently in her ear while telling her it’s okay and that everything will be so much better from here on out since she was brave enough to do this. He knows that she isn’t often a very emotional person, especially with visible sadness like crying, but so much has happened in the past 24 hours that a dam seems to have broken, and he’ll be damned if he won’t ride out every wave of overwhelming emotion with her.

So Dave’s beside June as she cries into his shirt and he’s there when she starts to calm down. He wipes the remaining tears off her face and kisses her eyelids like a charm to prevent more from falling. He fixes the braids in her hair and uses some of the makeup he keeps in his backpack to doll her up a little bit with some basic eyeshadow, blush, and lipstick. It’s still obvious she’s been crying, so on the way back to her house he stops by a McDonald’s to cheer her up with a McFlurry. By the time they pull up to her house you could barely tell she’d been crying at all.

Dave stops the car outside by the mailbox and looks at June. She’s just looking at her front door.

“Want me to go with you?” Dave offers.

“No, I feel like this is something I need to do alone,” she says.

Then she turns and looks at Dave again.

“Good luck, June.”

“Thanks, Dave,” she laughs nervously. Then she slips her hand onto the back of Dave’s neck and pulls him in for a quick kiss. Dave hopes her dad isn’t watching but suddenly doesn’t care about literally anything once her lips meet his.

“I’m just a text or call away if you need me,” he says once June pulls away. His voice is breathless the way it is every time she kisses him. “Seriously, if you need a getaway I’ll be here so fast it’ll break the sound barrier but you’d see my ass parked in this exact spot before you’d even hear the boom.”

“Gotcha,” she smiles. “Thanks for, everything, really. I’ll text you once I can.”

“I expect a full status update, young lady. You know the rules: no drinking or drugs, except for weed that's cool, don’t take rides from strangers, unless it's an Uber or something, no staying up past midnight,” Dave jokes.

“Sorry Dad but I gotta go see my Dad,” June teases back.

“Damn maybe you should call me that more often.”

“Eww, okay, I’m leaving,” June says, opening the door and grabbing her gift bag with the bunny and her previous outfit inside and leaving the car.

Dave watches her give a little wave and turn towards the house. She pauses for a brief second before walking up to the front door and digging through her bag to find her house keys. As she’s searching, the front door opens, and there stands her dad - Dave can tell by his hat and long nose and overall fatherly demeanor. Dave waits with baited breath as her dad looks at her for a moment. They just stand there unmoving for what seems like forever before June’s dad finally says something that Dave can't hear.

Luckily Dave has auditory-processing issues and learned long ago to read lips.

“ _Happy birthday, daughter,_ ” June’s dad says.

June then surges forward and wraps her dad in a hug. Dave feels himself getting choked up at the sight and is about to start the engine back up to drive away when Mr. Egbert looks right at Dave. June glances over at Dave then back at her dad and says something, but Dave can’t see her face to read what it is.

He realizes he must look like a creep just staring at the two Egberts having their moment, so he looks away and checks to make sure he doesn’t have any of June’s things in his car before he-

There’s a knock at the passenger side window. Dave looks up to find June with tear tracks down her face again but smiling through them.

Dave rolls down his window.

“Everything alright?” he asks cautiously.

“Yeah, it’s great. My dad just wanted to know if you wanted to come inside for a while. Also he asked if we were dating and I kind of… didn’t know what to say?”

“Shit, uh, yeah, okay. Let me just park in a not illegal place. And, um, I guess I’ll leave the dating thing up to you. I don’t really kiss people unless I wanna be with them, so do whatever the hell you want with that information.”

June looks at him expectantly, daring him to continue with that train of thought.

“Will you… go out with me, June?” he mans up and asks. It’s a very awkward setting to do so but he knows he’ll feel like a coward if he doesn’t and we can’t have any cowardice Striders no not today.

June breaks out into a grin.

“Obviously yes, of course, Dave!”

Dave smiles and breaks eye contact, turning the engine over.

“Okay. Cool. Absolutely dope.”

“Dork. You gonna come in or what?”

“Of course, princess,” Dave says, intending that to be sarcastic but ends up genuinely meaning it. June just smiles as Dave backs up out of the red zone and into the driveway behind Mr. Egbert’s super-clean car. He gets out and follows June to the front door where her dad awaits with an aura of fatherly warmth and friendliness. He welcomes Dave inside their home that Dave’s been in many times before, but this time is a bit different. This time, he enters the house with his _girlfriend_ who’s _out to her dad!_ This time there’s birthday decorations everywhere. The balloons look straight from the Dadly Depot and all say “Happy Birthday ~~Son~~ Daughter” where the “Son” on each one was crossed out and corrected with a Sharpie. A few cakes are placed around the living room and even more smells of baking waft in from the kitchen.

June smiles at Dave with tears in her eyes. Dave smiles back and takes her hand.

  


Dave stays by June’s side the whole day as she celebrates her first birthday living as her authentic self.

  


_Now that she's back in the atmosphere_

_With drops of Jupiter in her hair_

_She acts like summer and walks like rain_

_Reminds me that there's a time to change_

_Since the return from her stay on the moon_

_She listens like spring and she talks like June_

_Hey, hey, hey_

  


Dave stays by June’s side the next day as she comes out to the rest of their friend group and gets rewarded with applause, squeals, hugs, and praise. He’s also there that following Wednesday at GSA when June dons a “she/her” sticker and a nametag with her proper name on it for the first time and gets another wave of support from her friends for doing so.

  


_But tell me, did you sail across the sun?_

_Did you make it to the Milky Way to see the lights all faded_

_And that heaven is overrated?_

  


Dave stays by June’s side over the course of the next few months as she socially transitions. He helps her change her social media profiles and fill them with the pictures he’s taken of her. His bro helps her come out to school staff and get her name changed on all the attendance sheets and grading books. He picks up more shifts at work so he can help her get a new wardrobe.

  


_Tell me, did you fall for a shooting star–_

_One without a permanent scar?_

_And did you miss me while you were looking for yourself out there?_

  


Dave stays by June’s side when she starts HRT at the end of the year and supports her through every change she goes through.

  


_Now that she's back from that soul vacation_

_Tracing her way through the constellation_

_She checks out Mozart while she does tae-bo_

_Reminds me that there's room to grow_

  


Dave stays by June’s side when she’s drowning in paperwork and court appearances to get her name and gender marker legally changed. He’s the host of the party thrown in her honor once it also goes through and she’s finally legally herself.

  


_Now that she's back in the atmosphere_

_I'm afraid that she might think of me as plain ol' Jane_

_Told a story about a man who was too afraid to fly so he never did land_

  


June stays by Dave’s side when he finally gets the money and medical approval for top surgery, and is beside him through every step of the grueling recovery process. She’s his personal photographer for all of his shirtless photoshoots the moment he’s well enough to take them.

  


_But tell me, did the wind sweep you off your feet?_

_Did you finally get the chance to dance along the light of day_

_And head back to the Milky Way?_

  


June and Dave stay by each other’s sides until the end of time itself. They’re happy.

  


_And tell me, did Venus blow your mind?_

_Was it everything you wanted to find?_

_And did you miss me while you were looking for yourself out there?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading! This fic challenged me in a lot of ways but I'm happy with how it came out. I really hope you liked it! Leave me a comment telling me what you think, those make me so so happy <3
> 
> Also hit me up on Twitter @/KodaOfHeart to chat about it, request a fic, or just be friends! :D

**Author's Note:**

> My headcanons:  
> John/June is a demisexual bisexual trans girl with depression  
> Dave is a bisexual trans guy with ADD and autism (specific traits being synesthesia, sensory issues/touch aversion, and face blindness)  
> Dirk is a gay trans guy with OCD and autism (specific traits being big on routines/rituals, being nonverbal, and humming as a stim)  
> Jake is a pansexual trans guy  
> Jade is intersex and queer and autistic  
> Davepeta is pansexual pangender and has autism  
> Sollux is bisexual bigender  
> Roxy is pansexual nonbinary  
> Calliope is queer agender  
> Rose is a lesbian trans girl  
> Kanaya is a lesbian


End file.
